Village of Broadview sues DHS over fencing at ICE Processing Center
The I-Team has learned that the Village of Broadview has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement over what they call serious public safety issues relating to a protective fence erected around its Beach Street processing facility. The lawsuit, along with a request for an emergency temporary restraining order, was filed late Friday afternoon.
The new lawsuit comes after village officials say Broadview's mayor attempted to meet and speak with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after Noem showed up to village hall unannounced earlier in the day.
Surveillance footage obtained by the ABC7 I-Team shows Noem, along with a large contingency of federal agents dressed in fatigues, arriving unannounced at Broadview Village Hall around 10 a.m.
Village officials told the I-Team Noem was seeking a meeting with Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson.
In the footage, Noem appears to never enter the building, she and her team only interacting with a few village staff including uniformed Broadview police.
Village officials said Mayor Thompson was not there at the time. The entire interaction lasting about a minute before Noem goes back to the motorcade and leaves.
But later in the day, in a post shared on X, Noem alleged she and her team were only trying to take a bathroom break but that she and others were denied entry.
According to the village, upon learning of Noem's visit, Mayor Thompson then went to the ICE processing facility, accompanied by Broadview Police Chief Thomas Mills, "to ask for the illegal fence to be dismantled," but agents told her Secretary Noem was not available.
Broadview public safety officials voiced their concerns with the fencing at a news conference earlier this week.
"This construction was done without a permit, and it's on a street under the jurisdiction of the village of Broadway," said Acting Fire Chief Matt Martin. "Federal Government is not above local laws. This fence is currently blocking access for the Broadview fire department's businesses on that road in case of a fire or other emergency, our apparatus cannot use the street to get to the scene."
Martin continued, "Each day the fence remains, the risk of tragedy increases. That is the law of probability, and applies to everyone, including the Federal Government."
ABC7 Chief Legal Analyst Gil Soffer said there are strong arguments on both sides of the issue.
"The city's arguments are strong, if they can demonstrate that it blocks public access to public property, that it impedes the efforts of fire fighters to potentially put out a fire, those are strong arguments," Soffer said. "But the arguments they're going to come up against that the federal government is going to make is really the Supremacy Clause. Federal law is supreme. Federal action is supreme. We need this to protect federal assets, federal property and federal personnel."
Soffer says a judge may work to find a middle ground, but there are no guarantees a suit like this could win in court.
"Maybe there's something that can be done that protects the federal property and personnel for the government and also does not interfere with access to firefighters, police and anybody else on the side of the city," Soffer explained.
A spokesperson for the village of Broadview told the I-Team the village was hoped to get before a federal judge regarding their request for an emergency temporary restraining order Friday night.
